How To Train A Puppy

Starting your puppy off right!

---

Also, please note that because of volume, we are unable to respond to individual comments, although we do watch them in order to learn what issues and questions are most common so that we can produce content that fulfills your needs. You are welcome to share your own dog tips and behavior solutions among yourselves, however. Thank you for reading our articles and sharing your thoughts with the pack!

View the discussion thread. Skip to main content. Project calm and assertive energy Provide exercise, discipline, affection Provide rules, boundaries, limitations Master the Walk Read your dog's body language. Be aware of your energy Live in the moment Know the difference between story and truth Work with Mother Nature Honor your dog's instincts Nose, eyes, ears Know your dog's natural pack position Create the dog's calm submissive state Be the Pack Leader Life is simple; we make it complicated.

Commands to Teach a New Puppy

Puppy care Senior dog care End of life care. All about Dogs Natural history Dog news. About breeds Breed guide. Starting your puppy off right! By Cesar Millan People often ask me at what age they should start puppy training. Nipping nipping in the bud Biting. Nature and nurture Puppy. Here are ours for the comments: No bullying or harassment of fellow commenters.

No foul language or obscenities, please. How to Train a Crazy, Chewy, Nippy Puppy Even when you manage to get control of the housebreaking issue, your new puppy is still going to provide you with plenty of perplexing problems. This article provides a few tips on how to deal with some of the most common puppy problems.

Give your new puppy what she needs. How to Teach Bite Inhibition To A Puppy Teaching a puppy to control the force of her bites is one of the most important things you can do for your dog. It may end up saving you, a family member, or a friend, and it may end up saving her life! When is the best time to start training a puppy? As soon as I get her home. Six months of age, just like my neighbor told me! Questions must be on-topic, written with proper grammar usage, and understandable to a wide audience.

If you have a white Boxer or I have four puppies, and they are seven weeks old. Can I train them together? I think I could learn a lot from you! I have a pug that says so!!!! This website uses cookies As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. Hold a treat up in front of the puppy, and move it over her head so she sits down naturally. This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.

This is used to prevent bots and spam. This is used to detect comment spam. This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service.

This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis. This is feature allows you to search the site. Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature.

Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature.

This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. This is an ad network. Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.

Ask someone to help with off-the-leash training. Because this command is so important, the praise you give for performing it should be extravagant. Responding to the "come" command should be the best part of your dog's day. Do not create a negative association with this command. No matter how upset you are, never reinforce the "come" with anger.

Even if you're furious that your dog slipped the leash and ran free for five whole minutes, lavish him with praise when he finally responds to the "come. You can undo years of training with one bad experience. Never do something your dog won't enjoy after giving a "come. Praise the dog along the way for being calm and accepting of the task. You can use treats, of course. Go back to basics.

If you have a scare where your dog runs loose and ignores the "come" command, go back to leash training. Continue working on the leash until he responds reliably to the "come. It's too important to do half-heartedly. Because this behavior is so important, it must be reinforced throughout his entire lifetime.

If you take off-leash hikes with your dog, keep treats in your pocket to reinforce the command. You also want a command to let the dog know that it does not have to be right next to you all the time. Keep the fun going. Acclimate the dog to collar grabs. When you lean over to reward him for the "come," include grabbing the collar in your hand and petting around the neck as you give him his treat. Leashes should mean fun things are about to happen and we get to go places. There is no room for harsh corrections. Understand the purpose of the "listen" command.

Also known as the "watch me" command, the "listen" is one of the first commands you should teach your dog. That way, each individual dog will know when you want it to focus on you. Prepare a handful of treats. These may be dog treats you buy at the store, or hot dogs cut into small pieces. Choose a treat that you know your dog loves and will perform for. Stand near your dog. If he reacts to your presence, stand still and look away until he loses interest. Say "Listen" in a quiet but firm voice.

If you're using your dog's name instead of the "listen" or "watch me" commands, say his name instead. The tone and volume should be the same as if you were calling a person's name to get their attention. Don't raise your voice to get his attention. Shouting will no longer be regarded as something that commands special attention.

Dogs have excellent hearing — far better than ours. A fun twist on this command is to see how quietly you can whisper and have your dog respond. Give an immediate reward for the desired response. As soon as your dog stops what he's doing and looks toward you, praise him and give him a treat. Make the click sound before giving praise or a treat if you're using clicker training.

Remember that your response must be immediate. The faster you reward him, the better he'll understand the relationship between command, behavior, and reward. Once he's mastered the command, you shouldn't give him treats for performing it; however, you should still use your clicker or give verbal praise. Weaning the dog off treats is important because he may start to expect treats all the time. You'll end up with a dog who only performs when you have food. Praise your dog regularly even after he's mastered a command, but treat him intermittently.

That's the way to keep it solid in his doggy vocabulary. Once he's mastered command, you can use treats to shape the behavior to be faster or more accurate.

How to toilet train your puppy: common errors

He will soon realize that the treats come with the command or activity that follows the "listen. Get your dog into a standing position. The purpose of the "sit" is get your dog to transition from standing to sitting, not just continue sitting. Walk into your dog or step away from him to get him into a standing position. Position yourself in his line of sight. Stand directly in front of the dog so that his attention is focused on you.

Let him see that you have a treat in your hand.

Focus the dog's attention on the treat. Begin with the treat held down at your side. Give him an immediate treat and praise. He may be slow at first, but more treats and praise will speed up his response. Make sure that you do not praise him until his butt touches the ground. If you praise halfway through the sit, the dog will think that is what you want. Also, make sure that you do not praise him for getting back up, or you will get that behavior instead of the sit.

If your dog does not sit with the treat technique, you can use your leash and collar. Stand next to the dog, facing the same direction as him. Place a little backward pressure on the collar to encourage a sit. Gently lean the dog backward with the help of the collar while doing this. As soon as he sits, give him immediate praise and reward. Don't repeat the command. You want the dog to respond on the first utterance, not the second, third, or fourth.

If the dog does not perform the behavior within 2 seconds of your command, reinforce the command with the help of your leash. When you begin training a dog, never give a command that you are not in a position to reinforce. Otherwise, you risk training the dog to ignore you because there is no follow through from your end and the commands have no meaning. Create a positive meaning for the dog with praise and consistency. Praise natural sitting behavior. Look for times throughout the day when your dog just sits on his own.

Praise that behavior, and pretty soon you'll have a dog that sits for attention instead of jumping or barking at you. Get some food treats or a toy and find your dog. Hold the toy or treat in view so he focuses on you. Use the treat or toy to encourage your dog to lie down. Do this by moving the toy or treat onto the ground in front of the dog, between his front legs. His head should follow it, and his body should follow shortly thereafter.

Be accurate with your praise, too. If you praise him halfway down or up, that is the behavior you will get. Always praise him immediately when his belly is on the ground. Dogs read body language well and learn hand signals quite quickly. If he pops up to get the treat, do not give it to him, or you will be rewarding the last behavior he did before the treat.

Just start again, and the dog will understand that you want him all the way down on the ground, as long as you are consistent. Don't lean over your dog. Once your dog has caught onto the command, stand up straight when giving it. If you loom over him, you'll have a dog that only lays down when you are leaning over him. You want to work on being able to get your dog to lie down from across the room, eventually.

Teaching a dog to respect the threshold is important. You do not want a dog that runs out the door every time it opens — that could be dangerous for him. Doorway training doesn't need to happen every single time you go through a doorway.

But you should make the most of your training opportunities early in your puppy's life. Place the dog on a leash. You should have him on a short leash that allows you to change his direction from a close distance. If your dog moves to follow you when you step through the door, use the leash to stop his forward movement. Praise him when he waits. When he realizes that you want him to stay in the door instead of walking through it with you, lavish him with praise and rewards for the "good wait.

Teach him to sit in the threshold. If the door is closed, you can even teach your dog to sit as soon as you place your hand on the doorknob. He'll then wait while the door is opened, and not cross the threshold until you release him. This training should be done on leash at the beginning, for his safety.

Give a separate command to encourage him through the doorway. You might use a "come" or a "free. Practice leaving the dog at the threshold and do something on the other side. You might get the mail or take out the trash before you return and praise him. The idea is that you do not always call him across the threshold to meet you. You can also come back to him. Have him wait patiently while you prepare his meal. Eventually, he will sit on his own as soon as he sees his feeding bowl. Hand feed your dog. At meal time, start feeding your dog out of your hand.

Then use your hands to put the rest of the food in the bowl. This should help fix or prevent any food aggression tendencies. To teach this command, do the following: Hold a treat in your closed hand. The dog will probably lick, sniff, and paw at your hand in an attempt to get to the treat. Eventually, when the dog moves his nose away, praise him and give him the treat. Hold one treat in your palm in front of the dog and one behind you in the other hand. Place the treat on the floor. Move the treat from your palm to the floor.

Continue to reward your dog with the treat you have behind your back. If he eats the treat, go back to an earlier stage. Give your dog a toy to play with. As he takes the toy in his mouth, reward him for the behavior with praise.

Plus, he gets to play with the toy! Transition to less rewarding objects. It's easy for a dog to learn "take" when the object is so much fun! When he's mastered the connection between command and behavior, move on to boring objects. Examples might include newspapers, light bags, or anything else you might want him to carry. Do not get into a tugging match with the dog. When you tug, the dog tugs back harder. The value of the "sit" and "wait" seem obvious, but you may not understand at first why the "stand" is an important skill to teach your dog. You won't use the "stand" every day, but you'll need it throughout the dog's life.

Search form

For example, a dog who can stay calmly in a "stand" is the ideal patient at a vet clinic or client at a groomer's. Prepare for the training session. Grab his favorite toy or prepare a handful of treats to both focus your dog's attention and reward him for learning the command. Put the dog in a starting "down" or "lie down" position when working with the "stand" command.

He should move from lying down to standing up to get his toy or treats. You want to coax him into the standing position by having him follow the toy or treat. Hold the toy or treat in front of his face, at nose height. If he sits, thinking that will earn him a reward, try again, but with the treat or toy slightly lower. Encourage the dog to follow your hand.

Flatten your hand with your palm down. If you're using a treat, hold it with your thumb against your palm. Start with your hand in front of his nose and move it away a few inches. The idea is that the dog will stand up while following your hand.

You may need to use your other hand to encourage him from underneath his hips to get the idea at first. As soon as he reaches the standing position, praise and treat. Although you haven't yet started using the verbal "stand" command, you can use it in your praise: Add the verbal "stand" command. At first, you will work only on getting your dog to stand by following the hand that holds his toy or treat. When he's mastered that concept, begin incorporating the "stand" command into the training sessions. There are many ways to combine commands. Eventually, you'll have your dog performing these commands from across the room.

On its own, this command is something of a novelty. Inexperienced trainers sometimes find "speak" training spirals out of control. They end up with a dog who barks at them all the time. Clicker train your dog. Teach your dog to associate the click sound with a treat by clicking and treating a few times in a row. Continue this clicker training until your dog sees the click sound as a reward in and of itself.

The treat will come later. Figure out when your dog barks most. This will vary from dog to dog, so you have to observe your specific pet. He might bark most reliably when you withhold a treat, when someone knocks on the door, when someone rings the doorbell, or when someone honks a horn. Recreate the triggering event. The idea is to encourage him to bark on his own, then praise him for the action. You can see how this might be dangerous in the hands of an inexperienced trainer.

That's why "speak" training is a little different from the other commands. You'll incorporate the verbal command from the very beginning. That way, the dog doesn't think you're praising him for his natural behavior. Use the verbal "speak" command from the beginning.

Puppy Training

As soon as your dog barks for the very first time, give the verbal "speak" command, click, and give him a treat. The other commands thus far have taught the behavior first, then added a command that preceded the behavior. However, "speak" training gets out of hand too easily that way.

• The Middle Class in Neoliberal China: Governing Risk, Life-Building, and Themed Spaces (Routledge Contemporary China Series)
• The Rebel and His Bride: A Loveswept Classic Romance
• Aristotele e la favola dei due corvi bianchi (Aristotele detective) (Italian Edition)
• What You Should Know About Your Retirement Plan
• Verben im bayerischen Dialekt: Das Suffix –(e)l(n) und das Präfix der- im Vergleich zur Standardsprache (German Edition)
• My Life Across the Table: Stories from a Psychics Life